Thursday, September 7, 2017

Whisky Review: Bruichladdich Laddie Ten Second Edition

The first edition of Laddie Ten was met with a significant amount of fanfare, representing the distillery coming into its own. Its loss was equally significant, demonstrating that not all was right in their warehouses.

When Bruichladdich announced a second edition of Laddie Ten, it was met with significant excitement, albeit tempered by the knowledge that it was explicitly labeled as a limited edition, as opposed to an ongoing release.

This whisky was constructed from ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-red wine casks, then bottled at 50% without coloring or chill filtration.

Bruichladdich Laddie Ten Second EditionNose: fairly lean overall, a healthy dose of European oak, caramel, dusty red wine and sherry, plum, malt, herbal, baking spices. After adding a few drops of water the wine and fruit notes become jammier and more sherried, the malt and oak are more balanced, and the herbal notes become more peaty/new make-y.

Taste: red wine and berries with a malty, caramel thickness throughout, increasingly tannic at the back with underlying notes of peat and chocolate. After dilution it becomes more balanced, with the wine and malt notes complementing each other and the oak integrating into both.

Finish: red wine residue, chocolate, European oak tannins, dry malt

The red wine component of this vatting really shows through. While less disjointed than some other Laddies with a similar treatment, it does seem a shame to cover up the spirit with a coating of wine. With that said, Bruichladdich seems to have ironed out whatever problems it had with its spirit back when the first Laddie Ten was released. On the other hand, this one seems to benefit from water in the same way as the Laddie Eight, so it's unclear to me why these were bottled at 50% instead of 46%. Hopefully we'll see less tinkered with Laddies in the future, because this has promise even if it's not my jam in its current form.